2. Contact Info

3. Dealer Selection

Squint all you want, but still you can’t tell. Far in the distance, approaching fast, it’s an alien shape, a silhouette not found on the standard vehicle-I.D. charts. What the…? It’s a…it’s…okay, 50 bucks says it’s a giant nacho cheese Dorito.

Suddenly the UFO flashes into rakish relief and claws to a standstill at your feet. A wisp of ceramic brake dust coils out from one of the Cuisinart-blade wheels. Heat waves warp the view above the glass engine cover. The Pearl Metallic Orange paint pulsates as if freshly washed in a reactor core. And then, with a click-hissssss, the scissor doors open, one followed by the other, the pair gliding skyward with luxurious torpor until they resemble tangerine slices garnishing a wedge of pumpkin pie, the archways beneath revealing a space-capsule interior of black and quilted-orange leather.

Forget the normal car rules-they don’t apply here. Look at this thing. At its roofline, the LP640 stands just 3.7 feet high-while it’s fully capable of churning your guts like a rollercoaster, it’s too short to ride on one. All the height that isn’t there has instead been tacked onto the sides, making the LP640 wider than Kobe Bryant is tall (the Lambo passes more, too). New bumpers front and rear visually siphon off whatever few percentage points of body fat remained from the Murcilago’s already competition-toned, carbon-fiber physique. The exhausts now meet inside a single port that juts from the rear diffuser like the jet nozzle on the original Batmobile. And, as if the potential for Zap!-Pow!-Ciao! thrust weren’t enough, the redesigned taillights seem poised to kick in blasts from their propeller-like LEDs should a prancing horse come nipping at this big bull’s flanks.

You try writing a cold, objective review of the new $323,160 Lamborghini Murcilago LP640. You might as well go on a dinner date with Heidi Klum and not have a good time because she’s never read any Dostoyevsky.

Even if the Murcilago didn’t have an engine, you’d probably need a license to sit in it. But the Lamborghini people are kind enough to include an engine with every LP640 they sell, and in the new car it’s a whopper. Compared with the outgoing 6.2-liter V-12 (which served up “only” 571 horsepower), the LP640’s bored-and-stroked 6.5-liter unit (now with infinitely variable valve timing) delivers a Ferrari-sneering 631 horsepower at 8000 rpm and 487 pound-feet of torque at 6000. (Some explanation is necessary here. In Europe, the V-12 is rated at 640 ponies-hence the digits in the car’s name. “LP” stands for “longitudinal posteriore,” which in Italian apparently means “engine mounted lengthways behind cockpit.” Or maybe “you’re sitting on my world atlas.”)Six hundred and thirty one horsepower is more than six Scion xBs combined. Or three 1982 Corvettes. It’s more than any rational, responsible person needs in any one car, precisely why this Lamborghini is so thoroughly, exquisitely addictive. Total societal alienation is but a squeeze of the throttle away. Launched aggressively, the LP640 will blast to 60 mph in just 3.7 seconds. It hits 100 mph in 8 seconds flat. By then pretty much the entire world is behind you. Hold your foot down, and eventually, Lamborghini claims, you’ll find yourself on the north side of 211 mph-outrunning the Ferrari 599 and even most light aircraft. Whether you come back down to earth is up to you.

The numbers don’t do justice to the Murcilago experience. The LP640 leaps off the line without theatrics, aided by its standard four-wheel drive (a viscous-coupling system that can supply up to 100 percent of the engine’s torque to either axle as needed), a “drive-by-wire” electronic throttle, and 18-inch Pirelli PZero Rosso tires as wide as Montana. In fact, at first the car feels almost too genteel, seemingly asleep at the wheels (the traction-control system appeared to be zealously safeguarding the drivetrain, including the optional, $10,000 e-gear paddle-shift six-speed). But then the tach needle swings past 3500 rpm and STOP THIS THING MY LIVER JUST FLEW OUT THE WINDOW! The personality change is light-switch instantaneous: Cary Grant/atom bomb. The Corvette Z06 we tested last month ran the quarter mile a tick quicker than the big Lambo (despite boasting 126 horsepower more than the Chevy, the LP640 is heavier by more than 800 pounds), but even its awesome exhaust bellow can’t match the Murcilago’s full-throttle furor-which sounds like a custom-tailored Brioni suit being ripped to shreds by a pride of lions. There’s a lightning-strike sizzle to the LP640 that didn’t exist in the previous, basso profundo Murcilago. Don’t get bogged down comparing test-track tenths: The explosive, ear-splitting LP640 may well offer the most thrilling straight-line experience in the production-car kingdom.

The Murcilago is no ballerina when that road begins to curve-it has too much four-wheel-drive steadfastness, too much heft, too much sheer breadth for that. And you don’t want to try to slide it through turns, unless you have the numbers for your insurance agent, your attorney, and your good friend in a non-extradition country on your cell-phone’s speed dial. But drive the LP640 smoothly-brake hard, crack off an e-gear downshift or two, feed in the power, feel the front tires working through the loquacious steering, ease out the steering lock as you compress the throttle-you’ll find yourself maintaining a truly staggering pace. The LP640 is the prototypical “corners on rails” machine, a train grande vitesse with an 8000-rpm redline instead of a bar car.

No TGV ever stopped like this Lambo, though. Ours had the optional carbon-ceramic brakes with six-piston calipers ($13,000), which are capable of making your eyeballs feel like you’ve just had Lasik surgery on a waterbed. Stops from 100 mph take just 317 feet-better than the Z06-while stops from 60 mph are dead even with the Vette at 108 feet. While not on par with the Dodge Viper (which apparently deploys an invisible parachute to perform the same braking tests in just 288 and 104 feet, respectively), this is brilliant stuff for a 4046-pound automobile. Perhaps most important, given the LP640’s predilection for life in the hyperspace lane, the ceramic discs are as impervious to fade as Dick Clark.

Could you live with an LP640? The driver’s seat shows an utter disregard for human anatomy and in fact looks more like a leather slipcase for a crescent moon-though as Bill Lear once said of his famously fast but notoriously snug private jets, “You won’t be in it very long.” There’s a console-mounted button that can raise the low-slung front bodywork several inches, but forget to press it before approaching a speed bump, and you’ll shatter your costly carbon-fiber air dam into a thousand profanities. The view to the rear is virtually nonexistent-plan on carrying a spotter if you envisage ever backing up.

None of that matters. One look at this 50 Cent video on wheels, one taste of its seismic performance, and you’ll know why the Murcilago LP640 is cross-referenced in the dictionary under “centrifuge,” “exhibitionism,” and “lust.”

2007 Lamborghini Murcielago News and Reviews

Own a Lamborghini Murciélago or Murciélago Roadster manufactured between 2007 and 2008? If so, there's a good chance you'll need to visit your local service center in the coming weeks. The Italian automaker announced it is recalling roughly 428 Murciélagos in the United States to address an issue with the fuel tank design. According to the manufacturer, a series of…

Squint all you want, but still you can't tell. Far in the distance, approaching fast, it's an alien shape, a silhouette not found on the standard vehicle-I.D. charts. What the...? It's a...it's...okay, 50 bucks says it's a giant nacho cheese Dorito.Suddenly the UFO flashes into rakish relief and claws to a standstill at your feet. A wisp of ceramic brake…

Squint all you want, but still you can't tell. Far in the distance, approaching fast, it's an alien shape, a silhouette not found on the standard vehicle-I.D. charts. What the...? It's a...it's...okay, 50 bucks says it's a giant nacho cheese Dorito.We couldn't get all of the photos of the 2007 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 into our story, but you can see…

Squint all you want, but still you can't tell. Far in the distance, approaching fast, it's an alien shape, a silhouette not found on the standard vehicle-I.D. charts. What the...? It's a...it's...okay, 50 bucks says it's a giant nacho cheese Dorito.We couldn't get all of the photos of the 2007 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 into our story, but you can see…

The Los Angeles auto show is finally emerging out of the long shadow of Detroit's North American International Auto Show, to the unbridled joy of hundreds of war weary automotive journalists around the globe.In essence, this is the second L.A. show this year, the first being in January, right before the Detroit show where it used to languish. It's arguably…